It's different when the MSM puts a Republican inside a bullseye, because, uh . . . Remember when in 2011 voices on the left from Keith Olbermann to Paul Krugman to the Huffington Post among many others suggested that Sarah Palin was at least partially to blame for the shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords because Palin had put out a map of House seats with bullseyes depicting districts, including Giffords', that Republicans were targeting? Krugman for example wrung his hands over the "climate of hate" that Palin and others on the right were supposedly fomenting, and predicted growing political violence in the years ahead.

Will those same leftists condemn the Daily Beast, which today featured a photo of Rand Paul inside a big red bullseye over a story headlined "Rand Paul = Democrats’ Enemy #1." Enemy #1? Bullseye? Oh, the humanity! View the photo after the jump.

So . . . is the Daily Beast fomenting violence? If a wacko attacks Paul, would DB be to blame, or is the use of targets simply a hoary political metaphor employed by all sides?

Note: the author of the Daily Beast article, Olivia Nuzzi, made headlines of a different sort a year ago. She had been an intern on Anthony Weiner's ill-fated mayoral campaign, and spilled some inside secrets to the NY Daily News. Weiner's communications director Barbara Morgan fired back, calling Nuzzi a potpourri of unprintable names. Morgan also predicted that Nuzzi would never get a job in NYC again. Looks like she was wroing.